The present disclosure generally relates to a method and apparatus for accurately weighing a patient, such as an infant. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus that accurately determines the weight of an infant whenever the infant is placed on a bed or an incubator or removed from the bed or incubator.
Premature infants are often placed within an incubator so that they may have a controlled and monitored environment to aid in their survival and growth. Premature infants are fragile and, as such, highly susceptible to stress placed upon them every time they are disturbed by physical contact such as is required for lifting, moving or performing tests. This stress can contribute to a higher incidence of complications and possibly extend the hospital stay. Studies have shown that neonates, on average, get less than 30 minutes per day of quality rest. Infants that receive more rest are shown to recover faster
Nevertheless, it is often necessary to physically contact the infant. For example, infants, irrespective of their degree of prematurity, are often briefly placed in warmers. This is done so that while care is given, the infant is warmed by overhead heaters, and may also receive phototherapy, for example to treat jaundice. It is also often necessary to monitor the infant's weight. For example, medical therapies, such as the proper dosing of a medication, are based upon the accurate determination of the infant's weight.
Traditionally, methods of weighing infants require removal of the infant from one environment, such as an incubator, placing the infant on a scale for weighing, and returning the infant to the prior environment. The typical sequence of events when using such scales is that the scale is first activated (usually by the pressing of a key) and scale is then calibrated to zero. Such an in-bed scale requires the infant to be lifted from the bed to initiate the weighing process. Once the patient has been lifted, the scale is calibrated to a zero reading, which takes into account all of the items currently on the bed. Once the scale has been zeroed, the patient is placed on the bed and the weight of the patient is displayed. It can be appreciated that this sequence of events requires removing the infant from the incubator, for example, and thus disturbs the infant. Another common type of available in-bed scale allows the weight of the infant to be determined when the infant is on the bed without having to disturb the patient. However, in such a system, all extraneous items, such as pacifiers, beanie infants, pillows, blankets, etc. must be removed from the bed. Further, the caregiver must try to manually negate the effect of any intravenous lines and tubing that are attached to the infant in order to provide an accurate weight.
It has been recognized that it would be desirable to have a technique for accurately weighing the infant, in both the shorter and longer term environments in which they may be placed, to assess growth and health status and without disturbing and, thus, placing unneeded stress upon the infant.